Description: 4-7 in. (11-20 cm) Coloration is purplish black or slate with bright yellow or orange spots on back.  Belly is slate gray. Specimens from the mountains are generally larger than those from the piedmont.
Range and Habitat: Commonly found in the mountains and piedmont of North Carolina, with a few scattered populations in the coastal plain. Spotted Salamanders are most common in moist deciduous forests with temporary pools. They avoid bottomlands and permanent water bodies with fish.
Habits: Like other mole salamanders, Spotted Salamanders live in underground tunnels most of the year, only emerging in the late winter or early spring to breed. Because of their fossorial habits, these salamanders are most often encountered under rocks logs and other debris.
Breeding: Spotted Salamanders breed in late winter and early spring. Warm winter rains spark mass migrations to temporary woodland pools, sometimes while there is still snow on the ground. Eggs are laid in large clumps of up to 200 and take 30 to 55 days to hatch.  

Range of the Spotted Salamander in the Carolinas and Virgina